Saturday, August 31, 2013

This lineage begins with James Radsford, who was born about
1719 and married Margaret Ball on 26 December 1738 in East Bridgewater,
Massachusetts. This couple is a true
brick wall to my genealogy research, since I do not know the origins or parents
of either one. The name Radsford is
often spelled as Ratchford in the Bridgewater records, and it is the spelling
adopted by the descendants. They had
five sons, no daughters, in the vital records.

I descend from Thomas Ratchford, the second son. He married Desire Gore on 1 December 1760 in
Groton, Connecticut. She was the
daughter of Moses Gore and Desire Burris/Burrows/Burroughs. About 1763 he settled in Cornwallis, Nova
Scotia. He was part of the New England
Planter movement, who came to Nova Scotia for the free land given away after
the Acadian expulsion. Records of his
family can be found in the Township Book of Cornwallis.

Their daughter, Elizabeth Ratchford, is my 5th
Great Grandmother. She married David
Lyons on 25 May 1779 in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. He was a recent settler from Connecticut to
Nova Scotia. They had twelve children in
Cornwallis, and left many, many descendants.
My branch came back to New England. I found much information about this lineage of
Ratchfords in my ancestor, Reverend I. E. Bill’s, journals. The Rev. Bill married Isabella Lyons Bill,
the granddaughter of Elizabeth Ratchford and David Lyons.

I haven’t found any further Radsford or Ratchford records in
Plymouth County, Massachusetts to trace this lineage back further than James
Radsford, my 7th Great Grandfather.

My Ratchford genealogy:

Generation 1: James
Radsford, born about 1719; married on 26 December 1738 to Margaret Ball. They had five sons in the Bridgewater,
Massachusetts Vital Records.

Generation 2: Thomas Ratchford, born 19 June 1741 in
Bridgewater, died 27 December 1813 in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia;
married on 1 December 1760 in Groton, Connecticut to Desire Gore, daughter of
Moses Gore and Desire Burris. She was
born 20 September 1740 in Groton, and died 11 April 1813 in Horton. Three children.

Generation 3: Elizabeth Ratchford, born about 1764 and died
18 March 1845 in Nova Scotia; married on 25 May 1779 in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia
to David Lyons. Twelve children.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Barrington,
NH Genealogy Club, meets the first
Wednesday of the month at 6pm at the Barrington Public Library, 105 Ramsdell
Lane, Barrington, NH http://barringtongenealogy.weebly.com/ or email Wendy at genealogyclub@gmail.com

September 4, 10am, New Visitor Welcome Tour, at the New England Historic Genealogical
Society Library, 99 – 101 Newbury St.
Boston, MA. A FREE orientation and tour
of the resources available at NEHGS with over 15 million artifacts, books, manuscripts,
microfilms, journals, photographs, records and expert staff. For more info 617-536-5740

September 5, 12-1pm, Shoulder Your Arms: Colonial Militias in Early Plymouth Colony, a
“Lunch & Learn” lecture at Plimoth Plantation Museum, Plymouth,
Massachusetts, Free for members, $8 non-members. Learn the role of famous military figures
(such as Capt. Myles Standish), and the importance of Colonial arms and
armament in early New England. Bring a
lunch or buy one at the Patuxet Café. Please pre-register here http://pplunchandlearnseptember2013.eventbrite.com/

September 7, Saturday, 12:30pm Tell Your Life Story with Eddie Adelman,
at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 29 Ocean House Road, Cape
Elizabth, Maine, sponsored by the Greater Portland Chapter of the Maine
Genealogical Society. Social Hour at
12:30pm and speaker at 1pm. Business
meeting to follow at about 2:10.

September 7, Saturday, Family Natutical Night at Battleship Cove, Fall River,
Massachusetts. Spend the night on a WWII
battleship. Sleep in the bunks, eat
meals in the chow line, and rise and shine to the sound of reveille. Guests will enjoy all day admission, two
meals and the opportunity to participate in shipboard activities. www.battleshipcove.com

Further afield in Salt Lake City - for those with Hispanic ancestry
September 9 - 14th, Conferencia Iberoamericana de Genealogia, at 345 W. North Temple, Brigham Young Salt Lake Center in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Free classes to the public Friday September 13th and 14th and preceding the conference will be a four day gathering of genealogists, archivists, and professionals in the field of Hispanic research from September 9th to 12th. This portion costs $90, register at the website http://genealogia2013.org

September 9, 7pm, Monday, Digging into Native History in New
Hampshire, at the Stratham Fire House (Morgera Mtg. Room), 2 Winnicut Road,
Stratham, NH, contact the Wiggins Library for more info 603-772-4346. Abenaki history presented by Robert Goodby
who reveals archaeological evidence that shows their deep presence here in New
Hampshire.

September 10, 7pm, Tuesday, Harnessing History: On the Trail of New
Hampshire’s State Dog, the Chinook, at the Hampstead Public Library, 9 Mary
E. Clark Drive, Hampstead, NH. Contact
603-329-6411 for more information. FREE
to the public. Bob Cottrell covers the
history of Arthur Walden and his Chinooks.
Inquire whether the speaker’s dog will accompany him.

September 11, 7pm, Wednesday, The Founding Fathers: What were they
Thinking? At the Wadleigh Memorial
Library, 49 Nashua St., Milford, NH, contact 603-673-2408 for more
information. FREE to the public. Richard
Hesse presents the cast of characters called “founders”, the problems they
faced, and the solutions they fashioned.

September 12, 7pm, Thursday, New Hampshire Towns and the Civil War,
at the Brentwood Historical Society Museum, 140 Crawley Fall Road, Brentwood,
NH, contact 603-679-8635 for more information.
FREE to the public. Jere Daniell discusses the home front during the
war, responses to the Civil War, with specific examples from the history of
Brentwood.

September 12, 7pm, Thursday, The Capital Crime of Witchcraft: What the Primary Sources Tell Us, at the
Rochester Historical Society, 58 Hanson Street, Rochester, NH, contact
603-330-3099. Margo Burns presents an
array of witch craft prosecutions in 17th century New England, using
facsmiles of primary source manuscripts, and cases from Salem as well as New
Hampshire, Boston and Connecticut.

September 13, Friday, 1pm All Aboard the Titanic, Rye
Congregational Church, 580 Washington Road, Rye, New Hampshire, contact 603-964-6281
for more information. FREE and open to the public. Ted Zalewski explores the personal
experiences of selected passengers and crew, including those with New Hampshire
affiliations.

September 14, Saturday, 2pm African American Soldiers and Sailors of
the New Hampshire during the American Revolution, at the Discover
Portsmouth Center, 10 Middle Road, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, FREE and open to
the public, call 603-380-0193 for more information.

September 15, Sunday, 11:30am, World War II New Hampshire, Deering
Community Church, 763 Deering Center Road, Deering, New Hampshire, A documentary about life in New Hampshire
during the war, with interviews, news reel footage, photos and radio reports
from the battlefields, with a discussion facilitated by John Gfoerer. Call 603-529-7764 for more information. FREE
and open to the public.

September 19, Thursday, 6:30pm, A Woman That Keeps Good Orders: Women,
Tavern Keeping and Public Approval, at the American Independence Museum’s
Folsom Tavern, 164 Water Street, Exeter, New Hampshire, 603-772-2622. A discussion on the regulations, licensing,
handing drunks, controlling the flow of information- why would the Colonial era
government allow women to run a tavern? Why would a woman want to keep
one? FREE and open to the public.

September 20 -21, First New York State Family History Conference, Holiday Inn and
Conference Center, Liverpool, New York (just outside of Syracuse) For complete details see the website at http://www.nysfhc.org/ Jointly produced by the Central New York
Genealogical Society and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society for
the first ever statewide genealogical conference in New York State.

September 21, Saturday, Wyman Family Association Meeting and Reunion, at the Francis Wyman
House, built in 1666, at 56 Francis Wyman Road, Burlington, Mass., see www.wyman.org for more information

September 21, Saturday, Maine Genealogical Society 2013 Fall conference, at Jeff’s
Catering, 15 Littlefield Way, Brewer, Maine.
Featured speaker will be Laura Prescott with a keynote address “How the
Internet Makes Us Sloppy Genealogists”.
There will be a number of breakout sessions on a variety of topics.
Registration is $40 for MGS members, $50 for non-members (Register before
August 23 and enter a chance to win a $50 LL Bean gift card). For more info see the website http://conference.maineroots.org/

September 28, Saturday, New Hampshire Historical Society Museum will offer free admission
as part of the 9th annual Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day. Visitors must present a Museum Day ticket to
gain free admission for two. 9:30 am to
5pm at 6 Eagle Square, Concord, New Hampshire.
For more information visit www.smithsonian.com/museumday. Regular admission is $5.50 adults, $4.50
seniors, $3 children 6 -18, $17 family maximum.
Call 603-228-6688 for more information.

September 30, Monday, 7:30pm Runaway Wives: When Colonial Marriages
Failed, at the Riverwoods, 7 Riverwoods Drive, Exeter, New Hampshire,
603-658-3049, A lecture exploring how 18th century wives tired of
the marriage contract could run, but they could not hide. FREE and open to the
public.

October 19, 2013, Saturday, 8:45 am – 1pm, Family History Day “Update Your Family
History Toolbox”, LDS church, 90 Clinton St, Concord, New Hampshire. This 6th annual conference is FREE
to the public, recommended for ages 12 and over. For more information contact Martha
Methot 603-668-2958. Registration at
EventBrite online http://concordfamilyhistoryconference-zvents.eventbrite.com/ You will have a choice of four class
sessions, 50 minutes each, from a large conference schedule.

October 19, Saturday, 1pm – 5pm, Open House to Benefit the Hollis Hisotrical
Society, 19 Main Street, Hollis, New Hampshire, across from the Wheeler
House Museum.Visit the recently restored Whiting/Poole/Hackett House. Nine rooms available for the tour after a
boiler explosion in 2008 damaged much of the main floor. 603-465-3935, Tickets
at $20 per person may be purchased ahead of time.

October 22, Tuesday, 6:30pm A
Soldier’s Mother Tells her Story, Brookline Public Library, 16 Main Street,
Brookline, New Hampshire, with Sharon Wood portraying Betsey Phelps, FREE and
open to the public. Contact Erin Kennedy
at 603-673-3330 for more information.

November 7, Thursday, Our National Thanksgiving: With Thanks to President Lincoln & Mrs.
Hale, portrayed by Steve and Sharon Wood as Lincoln & Hale, at the
Ridge at Riverwoods, 10 White Oak Drive, Exeter, New Hampshire, FREE and open
to the public, contact 603-658-1510 for more information.

November 7, Thursday, noon – 1pm, Native Foods, a “Lunch & Learn”
lecture at Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Free for members, $8
non-members. Carol Wynne, the Wampanoag
Foodways Manager at Plimoth Plantation will discuss Wampanoag foods and how
they were grown, used and stored in the 17th century. Bring a lunch or buy one at the Patuxet
Café. Please pre-register here http://pplunchandlearnnovember2013.eventbrite.com/

November 10, Sunday, 2pm Our National Thanksgiving: With Thanks to President Lincoln & Mrs.
Hale, portrayed by Steve and Sharon Wood as Lincoln & Hale, at the Deerfield
Community Church, 15 Church Street, Deerfield, New Hampshire, FREE and open to
the public, contact Jeanne Menard at 603-463-9869 for more information.

November 12, Tuesday, 6:30pm Our National Thanksgiving: With Thanks to
President Lincoln & Mrs. Hale, portrayed by Steve and Sharon Wood as
Lincoln & Hale, at the Deerfield Community Church, 15 Church Street,
Deerfield, New Hampshire, FREE and open to the public, contact 603-362-5234 for
more information.

December 7, Pearl Harbor Day at Battleship Cove, Fall River,
Massachusetts. Commemorate the 72nd
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor with a brief ceremony at 12:55pm- the
exact hour of the Japanese strike.The
service includes a wreath casting with remarks. Open to the public. www.battleshipcove.com

Thursday, August 29, 2013

On 27 August 2013, TLC aired an episode of WDYTYA? starring supermodel Cindy Crawford as the featured
celebrity. She discovered that she had a
colonial lineage that traced back to Thomas Trowbridge, her 10th
great grandfather. He was involved with
the Siege of Taunton, England during their civil war in 1645. She met with professional genealogists who
presented her with impressive scrolls that outlined her lineage to Trowbridge,
and ultimately a very fancy scroll that traced back about 30 generations to
Charlemagne and early kings of Europe.

According to Matthew Deighton of Ancestry.com, the research
team at WDYTYA? spent more than 1000 hours of research on Cindy Crawford’s
story. Imagine how many hours this would
take amateur genealogists to research?
Most viewers watching this show have never done any family history
research. Do they believe that they can
walk into a repository or archive and be handed generations of genealogy? Does
this support the myth that you can connect online at Ancestry.com and
immediately find an impressive lineage back to someone famous?

I’ve been at the Nashua Family History center and witnessed
folks walking in off the street demanding to see their family history. At the reading room at the NEHGS library in
Boston I overheard a man requesting to see specifically “The last six
generations of my family tree in book form, not microfilm, please”. The ensuing discussion with the genealogist
behind the desk was quite humorous.

Although I am descended of too many farmers, paupers and simple laborers to count, I have found links between several colonial ancestors and
royal lineages. It took me hundreds of
hours to reach that colonial immigrant ancestor, and then I relied on books
such as Gary Boyd Roberts’ book The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the
American Colonies, or websites such as William Addams Reitwiesner’s http://wargs.com/ databases of European royalty
and nobility. Using these resources is
the closest thing I know to being handed an impressive lineage scroll. Someone else has done the work, and you need
to verify your connection. Just go to
the NEHGS website at www.americanancestors.org
and try the library catalog search using the subject “families of royal descent”
and you will find over 150 books and manuscripts.

Never forget the hundreds, or thousands of hours it took to
get to this point. And take this gift with a grain of salt. I’ve pored over these genealogies and found
many semi-mythical ancestors such as the Scandinavian descents from Odin, or
ancient British king like Arthur or Beli Mawr, who also connect to biblical
descents according to some genealogies (including Adam and Eve). You must remember that historically the
royalty maintained these written genealogies to prove they had “the blood of
the gods” or inherited privilege. Google the “Stone of Scone” to see how this tradition and myth is still perpetuated in
the British Monarchy.

This episode seemed be about name collecting, which is something Ancestry.com and other websites are blamed for promoting. There was no mention of the 1000 hours I learned from Matthew Deighton. As a spokesperson for Ancestry.com, it would have been nice if the viewers knew that the verification of those many, many generations of Cindy Crawford's lineage took a long, long time and an entire team of researchers.Someone had to spend hours verifying this documentation. You can read all about this process at the ProGenealogist blog post here:http://www.progenealogists.com/whodoyou.htm

Some resources for working with royal and noble descents

Europe:

The Royal Descents of 600
Immigrants to the American Colonies, by Gary Boyd Roberts, Baltimore:
Genealogical Pub. Co, 2008

Ancestral Roots of Certain
American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700, by Frederick Lewis
Weis, Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Pub. Co, 2004.

American Ancestors and Cousins of
the Princess of Wales by Gary Boyd Roberts, Baltimore: Genealogical
Pub. Co., 1984

Ancestral Roots of Sixty
Colonists Who Came to New England between 1623 and 1650: The lineage of Alfred
the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and some of
their descendants, by Frederick Lewis Weis, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical
Pub. Co, 1982.

Ancestry of Catherine Middleton:
Who Will Marry Prince William of Wales 29 April 2011, compiled by
William Addams Reitwiesner, edited by
Christopher Challender Child and Scott
Campbell Steward, NEHGS, 2011.

The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215,
The Barons Named in the Magna Charta, and some of their Descendants, by
Arthur Adams, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1964.

Medieval English Ancestors of
Certain Americans: Many of the English Ancestral Lines Prior to 1300,
by Carl Boyer, Santa Clarita, CA, 2001.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Every Wednesday for two years I've been posting photographs of weather vanes located in or near the Nutfield area (the former name for the land where Londonderry, Derry and Windham, New Hampshire are now located). Most are historically interesting or just whimsical and fun weather vanes. Today's weathervane can be seen on the Maine coast. Have fun guessing where you may have seen this weather vane.

Do you know the location of weather vane #111? Scroll down to see the answer....

Today's weather vane was photographed at the Hotel Pemaquid, 3098 Bristol Road, New Harbor, Maine. The three dimensional horse and sulky weather vane is atop the carriage house, across the street from the main part of the hotel. This hotel was originally a farmhouse, and was converted to a hotel on 4 July 1888. It is located only 150 yards from the ocean coastline, and is near the historic Pemaquid Lighthouse. There is a weather vane of a sailing ship on top of the main hotel building, too, if you look closely.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

This is where a large number of tombstones and memorials are made by the Rock of Ages Granite company in Barre, Vermont. You might have seen the logo on a gravestone in a cemetery near you. The granite mined here is also used for statues and memorials, such as the new World War II monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC. At the visitor's center you can watch a film about the quarry, take a tour of the quarry, or visit the manufacturing plant next door where the granite is carved by artists into memorials and monuments.

This part of the granite quarry is over 600 feet deep, and the granite is a beautiful light gray color.

"In the late 1950's Rock of Ages

experimented with making lanes out of

granite for use in commercial bowling alleys.

Although a few such alleys were created

the concept never caught on. This prototype

was used for many years by employees

and visitors alike, but then was neglected and

fell into disrepair. We have restored the old

lane with a few exceptions. We left the gutters

as they are to demonstrate how the reinforced

concrete has weathered, while the granite alley

is virtually untouched by the passing years.

There is no automation here. Step back in time

with your family to an era when "pin boys"

reset pins and returned balls. Take turns as the

designated "pin person" and have a ball."

Carving gravestones and memorials is serious business, so I'm sure the artists had fun creating this granite bowling alley. Visitors sure had fun trying it out!

Monday, August 26, 2013

When I was just a teen aged kid, I started tracing our
genealogy. I had some help from a night
class I took, and then I was on my own in the genealogy stacks of the reading
room at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. I was lucky because it was the mid-1970s,
and I had interviewed my grandparents, who had been born in the 1890s. They knew all about their own parents and
grandparents, which took me right to the “Tan Books”. In those days (pre-internet), anyone doing
Massachusetts ancestry used the Tan books, which are the published vital
records for most of the towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Tan books cover from the beginning of
vital records in the early 1600s up to 1850.

I was also lucky because the AAS had, and still has, a great
collection of compiled genealogies. I
was able to find a book on my MUNROE ancestors, and my EMERSONs, and then the
CONVERSE family. I carefully compared
all the notes and dates to vital records.
I was sure that I was on the right track. However, the CONVERSE family
had information on the family going back into the eons of time in England. I took it all for granted and added it to my
family tree. There was no way of checking
information pre-1620 in the Massachusetts Vital Records.

Fast forward - in the year 2001 a book was published
called The Name’s Familiar II, a second volume of a book by Laura Lee
which gives biographies and family histories on the inventors or historical
figures who lent their names to brands, inventions, and other commonly used
words. This is the book for you if you
are curious about the people and names behind CliffsNotes, Bunker Hill, or Converse athletic shoes. You can read this book online at Google
Books.

The very first line of the sketch on Marquis Mills Converse,
founder of the Converse athletic shoe company, states “…was born October 25, 1861 into a
family that traces its lineage all the way back to Edward III of England…”. I wondered if they used his noble heritage
in any early advertising. And hey, that CONVERSE
name sounded familiar? Marquis Mills
Converse turned out to be a relative. To me.
Not to any noble King in England.
If a fifteen year old could figure out that family history, why couldn't
a book author? (Did his parents name him "Marquis" after a mythical royal lineage?)

Did you ever wear a pair of Chuck Taylor basketball shoes?
This is the same Converse shoe company, founded in 1908 in Malden, Massachusetts. Our common ancestor, the Puritan Deacon
Edward Converse first came to the New World and settled in Charlestown, and
then Woburn, Massachusetts. Malden was a
great place for this famous sneaker factory since it is right in between the
two towns where Deacon Converse lived in the 1600s. These shoes are probably now made in China, but I don't know for sure. Converse sneakers were wildly popular with both basketball players and teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s, until designer athletic shoes became the rage in the 1970s and 1980s. The company is still making athletic shoes,
and they are more popular today with skateboarders and red carpet actresses in
Hollywood than with NBA athletes.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

This is another brickwall line, and I was reluctant
to post it as a Surname Saturday name until I realized that someone out there
in cyber space may have the answer to my lineage problems. So here is the story…

My line begins with David Lyons. He appears in Nova Scotia records for the
first time when he purchased land from Thomas M. Beckwith near the Pereau River
on 6 April 1803. He appears in the 1790
Federal Census of Stratford, Connecticut.
According to an article in Connecticut
Ancestry “Connecticut Loyalists Who Went to Canada” 1974, Volume 17, No. 2,
a “Daniel Lyon” was granted land in Canning, Nova Scotia. Is this the same man?

On 25 May 1779 in Cornwallis, Kings County, Nova
Scotia David Lyons married Elizabeth Ratchford, the daughter of Thomas
Ratchford and Desire Gore, other new Nova Scotia planters from New England. I know little else about Thomas and
Elizabeth. David Lyons and his family are listed in the Cornwallis Township
book, which gives the names and some dates for the twelve children’s births.

My line continues through their son, Thomas
Ratchford Lyons, who married twice. His first wife, and my 4th great
grandmother, was Ann Skinner. She gave
him seven children. I only know a little
about this generation from vital records in the Cornwallis Township Book and
from a journal written by a son-in-law.
Their daughter, Isabella Lyons, married the Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer
Bill, who wrote extensively about his life, his family and his conversion to
the Baptist faith. There is also some
information about the Lyons family in the family sketches chapters of The
History of King’s County, Nova Scotia by Arthur Wentworth Hamilton
Eaton, 1910 (available to read online at archive.org at this link http://archive.org/details/historykingscou00eatogoog
).

Other LYONS researchers have uncovered information
about a Patrick Lyons in Nova Scotia. This
Patrick Lyons lived previously in Connecticut, where he witnessed a will. Patrick Lyons left a will mentioning his
father’s burial in County Monaghan, Ireland, and a brother Edmund in Castleblaney. Could he be the father, brother or kinsman of
David Lyons? Was the family of Irish descent? Were they Loyalists?

My LYONS lineage:

Generation 1:
Patrick Lyons?

Generation 2: David Lyons, born about 1759 in
Connecticut? Died May 1812 in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia; married on 25 May 1779
in Cornwallis to Elizabeth Ratchford, daughter of Thomas Ratchford and Desire
Gore. She was born about 1764 and died
on 18 March 1845 in Nova Scotia.

Generation 3: Thomas Ratchford Lyons, born 3 March
1780 in Cornwallis, died 1859 in Sackville, Nova Scotia; married first on 30
September 1802 in Cornwallis to Ann Skinner, daughter of Charles Skinner and
Sarah Osborn. She was born 9 March 1786
in Cornwallis and died 19 October 1815 in Cornwallis. He married second to Anne Griffin.

Generation 3: Isabella Lyons, born 28 January 1806
in Cornwallis, died April 1872 in Carleton, New Brunswick; she married on 20
April 1826 in Cornwallis to Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill, son of Asahel Bill
and Mary Rand. He was born on 19
February 1805 in Billtown, Cornwallis and died 4 August 1891 in St. Martin’s,
New Brunswick.

Friday, August 23, 2013

This spot, with the historical markers and miniature log cabin,
marks the birthplace of Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman, in Leominister, Massachusetts

Every time I drive to my Mother’s house we drive down Route
13 through Leominster, Massachusetts.
Along the way we pass a “Welcome to Leominster” sign that says “Home of
Johnny Appleseed”, a Johnny Appleseed
school , Appleseed plaza, and lots of other references to the mythical
hero. But he was a real man, and his
actual name was John Chapman. He was my
2nd cousin, five generations removed. His
mother was Elizabeth Simonds, the niece of my 5th great grandfather,
Caleb Simonds (1720 – 1811).

One day last month when we were passing though Leominster I said to my husband, “Let’s find the
historical marker for his birthplace”.
Of course, it was located on Johnny Appleseed Lane, next to the Johnny
Appleseed State Park. It was easy to
find with an iPhone using Google and a mapping app, or GPS. The memorial was small and solemn, and easy
to drive past if you don’t go slowly and keep your eyes open on Johnny
Appleseed Lane. There is no space to park
and pay your respects, so we pulled over on the side of the road and took a few quick photos out the car window.

NEAR THIS SITE WAS BORN
JOHN CHAPMAN
KNOWN AS
JOHNNY APPLESEED
SEPTEMBER 26, 1774 MARCH 18, 1845
LEOMINSTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1963

In a funny coincidence, my ancestor Caleb Simonds, mentioned
above, had a first cousin married to
Colonel Loammi Baldwin (1744 – 1807), who was a renaissance man - an
engineer, inventor, politician and an officer in the American Revolution. Loammi Baldwin has a statue in his hometown
of Woburn, Massachusetts, and is widely remembered as the cultivator of the
Baldwin apple among all his other acomplishments. He is the husband of my 2nd cousin six generations
removed. I wonder if Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman took
Baldwin apple seeds with him on his journey to the midwest?

This Johnny Appleseed statue is in the
Londonderry Leach Library, next to the Children's Room.
It was sculpted by Pat Verani of Londonderry.

Johnny Appleseed’s
genealogy:

Generation 1: John
Chapman, born 26 September 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts, died on 18 March
1845 in Fort Wayne, Indiana; unmarried.

Generation 2: Johnny “Appleseed”’s
parents were Nathaniel Chapman, born 13 September 1746 in Tewksbury, Massachusetts,
died 18 February 1807 in Salem, Ohio; married as his first wife on 9 August 1769 in Leominster to Elizabeth
Simonds. She was born 2 July 1748 in
Ware, Massachusetts, died 18 July 1776 in Leominster.

Generation 3: James Simonds, born 10 March 1717 in Woburn,
Massachusetts, died in Leominster; married as his first wife on 12 May 1740 in
Woburn to Anna Lawrence, daughter of John Lawrence and Elizabeth Stone. They are my 5th great uncle and
aunt.

Generation 4: James Simonds, born 1 November 1686 in Woburn,
died 30 June 1775 in Woburn; married on 17 June 1714 in Woburn to Mary Fowle,
daughter of James Fowle and Mary Richardson.
She was born 18 June 1689 in Woburn, died 9 March 1762 in Woburn. They are my 6th great grandparents.

Generation 5: James Simonds, born 1 November 1658 in Woburn,
died 15 September 1717 in Woburn; married 29 December 1685 in Woburn to
Susannah Blodgett, daughter of Samuel Bloggett and Ruth Eggleton. She was born 17 February 1663 in Woburn, and
died 9 February 1715 in Woburn. My 7th
great grandparents

Generation 6: William Simonds, born about 1612 in
Winchester, Hampshire, England, died 7 June 1672 in Woburn; married on 18
January 1644 in Woburn to Judith Phippen.
She was born about 1619 and died 3 January 1690 in Woburn. My 8th great grandparents.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Londonderry Historical Society hosted lots of historical activities on Old Home last weekend. There were colonial era re-enactors, demonstrations of old fashioned crafts, a Farmers and Artisans market, and other fund raisers to benefit the re-construction of the Rev. William Morrison house on the museum property. A record number of attendees had a wonderful time!

In 1899 New Hampshire governor Frank Rollins proclaimed the first Old Home Day for the third Saturday in August. It brought home people who had moved to the big cities out of state, or to the mills in Nashua and Manchester for employment, or out west for better farming opportunities. There are only about ten communities in New Hampshire that have faithfully carried on the Old Home Day tradition of the third Saturday in August. Many other hold Old Home Day anytime in August, September or October.

Weathervane Wednesday is an on-going series of photographs I post weekly, usually of weather vanes in the Nutfield, New Hampshire area, but sometimes they can be from anywhere. Occasionally they are elsewhere in New England, or very historical weather vanes from anywhere else. Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, but all are interesting. Often, my readers tip me off to some very unique and unusual weather vanes, too! Today's weather vane is from Boston, Massachusetts.

Do you know the location of weather vane #110? Scroll down to the bottom to see the answer!

Today's weather vane is from the top of the steeple at the Old North Church in Boston. This is the church, and the famous steeple where the signal lights were hung for Paul Revere on the evening of 18 April 1775, when he set out on his famous ride to raise the alarm that "The Redcoats were coming!" This church is very difficult to photograph from the narrow streets. Below you can see church steeple photographed from the 33rd floor of 60 State Street, Boston (the old "Bay Tower Room" restaurant).

This weather vane is a six foot swallow tailed banner, made in 1740 by my relative Shem Drowne. Shem's father, Leonard Drown, married my 7th great grandmother, Mary Abbott, as her third husband. Only four surviving weather vanes can be attributed to tinsmith Shem Drowne. You can read more about Shem Drowne, our genealogy, and his most famous weather vane, the Faneuil Hall grasshopper, at this link:http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/weathervane-wednesday-genealogical.html

UPDATE: 1:22pm 20 August 2013
An email from reader Bill Olsen of Plymouth, Massachusetts
"August 25, 1954
High winds destroyed the spire of the Old North Church in Boston, which was the location of where the lanterns
were hung during Paul Revere's ride. It
was a replacement spire, after a hurricane in 1804 destroyed the original."
---------------------------------

Copyright

You may NOT use the contents of this site for commercial purposes without explicit permission from the author and blog owner. Commercial purposes includes blogs with ads and income generating features, and/or blogs or sites using feed content as a replacement for original content. Full content usage is not permitted.

About Me

Author of the Nutfield Genealogy blog and occasional genealogy speaker. My family research includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, with a smattering of Nova Scotia. Please contact me if you see your ancestors on this blog. I would love to share information. I am the former secretary of the New Hampshire Mayflower Society, former President of the Londonderry Historical Society, member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Mass. Society of Genealogists, The National Genealogical Society, and the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists.